NOBA UK Meet at Scunthorpe on 2nd and 3rd of September 2017
The big day of our annual get together has come and gone.
Just like when any family members came to stay with us for a short while, we were filled with joy and then left with sadness and of course many joyful and funny moments to carry in our hearts.
The events started with the get together /dinner a night before the event at our home and then subsequently at Premier Inn, Scunthorpe.
It was a combination of home cooking at our place and at Poonamji's place which brought together the ethos of our families. I think we all enjoyed the food as well as the company while gearing ourselves up for the big day. Poonamji's untiring persona inspired us to up get up and go and get things done!
The next day we gathered at the Brumby Hall venue which had already been set up by Mel and her family for the all-round care of all children who were going to attend.
Unfortunately she became acutely unwell and had to rope in her mother and nephew to help entertain the children.
Gradually the full complement of expected attendees filled the hall.
This year we introduced our own NOBA UK meet Banner designed by Krishna Anand.
The following Members attended:
Dr Sushil Chandra Thakur and Mrs Usha Thakur (1959)
Dr Anil Singh and Mrs Renu Singh (1961)
Dr Asha Sinha and Dr Navin Kumar (1962)
Dr Kaladhar Nr. Jha and Dr Poonam Jha (1963)
Dr Anil Jha and Mrs Anita Jha (1964)
Dr.Krishna Chandra Pandey and Dr Gayatri Pandey, son Dr Krishna Anand [Guddu] and daughter Dr Laxmi Aanad [Saloni] (1965)
Dr Kameshwar Singh and Mrs Madubala Singh (1965)
Mr Omshankar Prakash Prasad and son -Ashutosh, daughter-in law-Vinita, grandson-Avirat and granddaughter-Siddhiksha. (1965)
Dr Manohar Thakur and Dr Mita Thakur, Sons Dr Mrinal Thakur [Manu] and Mr. Maitreya Thakur [Shanu] (1968)
Mr Arun Jha and Mrs Sadhna Jha, daughter Adya Jha and son Abhijeet Jha (1968)
Dr Jai Prakash Nr. And Dr. Smiti Narayan and daughter Khushi (1972)
Mr Om Prakash Choudhary and Mrs Geeta Choudhary (1973)
Mr Rajiv Kumar and Mrs Rekha and son Rahul
Mr.Ghanshyam Kumar and Dr Aradhana Rani and daughters Gauri and Anika (1980)
Mr Anuj Sinha and Mrs Priti Sinha .,and mother of Anuj, daughter Harshita and son Aditya (1983)
Mr Kumar Vivekanad and Mrs Aruna and daughters Adity and Pranity 1983
Mr Sami Haider and Mrs Sudha , daughter Sara and son Arman 1984
Rakesh Ravi and Dr Sumitra and daughters Pragya, Prabha and son Samyak (1985)
Mr Sanjay Kumar and Mrs Tina Malhotra and daughter Ira and son Avi (1987)
Miss Sapna Sinha daughter of Dr Sanjay Kumar of 1976 batch [Prof and HoD of Physics Bihar university]
We received apologies from Dr Gyaneshwari Prasad ji, Dr Parmanad Choudhary ji,Dr Virendra Gupta ji , Dr Pradeep Kumar , Dr Vibhash Mishra ,Dr Deepak Kumar and Mr Vedvyas . Mr Arun Puri ji unfortunately could not attend the meet due to some logistic problem despite being in the UK during this period . Trinath Mishraji sent a message which was read out,as did Amar Vermaji from Ranchi. We could not contact few of our members.
The catering for the afternoon and evening had ethic flavour cooked and catered by Sharma jee from Motihari and was simply unparalleled. The icing on the cake was the lassi, snacks and Indian sweats ---once again by courtesy Poonam ji!
The programme was inaugurated by lamp (candle) lighting by Sushil Ji [1959] and cake cutting by Omshankar [1965],our guest from India. Omshankar attended the meet with his son -Ashutosh, daughter-in law-Vinita ,grandson-Avirat and granddaughter-Siddhiksha. We had this unique opportunity to welcome 3 generations together of a family member of NOBA.
The cake was sponsored by Manohar whom we turned to as desperate last resort as we had failed to rope in any of our local cake makers, and of course he brought a most fantastic cake!
Vidyalaya Gaan was then played followed by brief silence to pay respect for the departed souls of our beloved Mr. Ravidra Kumar Sinha [s/o late Sri B.K.Sinha ji's son younger brother of Ashna ji ] and Mata ji -wife of Sri Mangal Dev Pandey ji.
After a brief welcome address the event gathered momentum and was brilliantly compered by Om Prakash Choudhary.
We had a busy but entertaining evening with a mix of informative and entertaining presentations. Anil Jha ji shared his experience of travel passion; Om Prakash Choudhary's talk gave us insight into new non bio fuel dependent cars for coming future. Sapna shared her Japanese experience with us.
Recent success of children was lauded - which included Pragya,s success in obtaining A grade GCSE in Hindi and Maitreya's enrolment in British Civil Service.
Children gave us a very entertaining evening by performing dance, song, violin recital and poetry as well as shloka. The evening concluded with joyful and playful rendition of poetry and Bollywood songs in 'Antyakshari' by the Hatians and their spouses respectively.
The last but not the least was a listing of the 'good 'and 'not so good 'aspects of their spouses by the wives which was honest and soul searching for both the partners in the relationship.
The next morning saw a welcome and beautiful day at Normanby Country Park where there was a joyful gathering under nature's canopy.
Carefree walks, amazing animals and birds, the' land train' which provided a slow meander through the park all highlighted the joy we felt on the second day of coming together as a family.
Food was, once again, varied and the second celebration cake that was cut by Kaladharji was provided by Laxmi.
The children enjoyed games and rewards and short Frisbee stints were enjoyed both by the children and grown-ups.
Most people had to leave by mid day due to travel and work commitments and we came home with the feeling of joy and some emptiness as all the preparations had finally come to fruition.
Next year, will hopefully see us in even greater numbers at Om Prakash and Geeta's place reliving the gathering once again and having the greatest time together.
Commendably, initiated for the greater good by Maitreya Thakur ,a generous donation of £170.00 was made to Red Cross from the Hatians for flood relief in South Asia Floods Appeal.
We hope that this will be carried forward by all of us in future to help population in need in whichever small way we can.
Brilliant summary. It was great to meet with everyone and looking forward to the next meet.